# Chapter 2182: Never Choose to Run Away
Jiangnan scratched his head in frustration. This was tough—he couldn't persuade him, could he?
Damon wiped his tears and said, "He... he has already received everyone's thanks, and there's nothing more to be grateful for. You are my friend, and protecting you is what I should do!"
"If you came to talk to me about these matters, Brother Jiangnan, you can go back now!"
"I don't want to join the Bully Gang, nor do I want to escape from prison..."
As he spoke, Damon hugged his doll tightly and buried his head deep into his knees.
Chong Feiyu pouted and stood up:
(◦`~´◦) "Let's go, let's go. On to the next one. It's not like we're missing him..."
Wang Youzhi, however, watched Jiangnan with great interest. What would he say?
Jiangnan propped his chin on his hand, deep in thought. Strictly speaking, both the Sovereign personality and the Big Meng personality were Damon himself!
It was the same no matter who he talked to!
Since the soft approach didn't work, he'd have to resort to the hard way.
Jiangnan's expression turned serious: "Why don't you want to leave the Ming He Death Prison? Is it because you're afraid of losing control and hurting more people?"
Damon hung his head, his expression pained, his eyes full of self-blame:
୧(⋟﹏⋞メ)୨ "Because the Baleful Qi poured into my body and corroded my consciousness, that's how he was born. He slaughtered countless lives!"
"My own kin, close friends, the lives of several planets—all died by his hand. Even the elderly, the children... those people were all innocent!"
"Yet they all died because of him. I can't go out. If I lose control again, more people will become unfortunate because of me. I... I..."
Damon's voice grew smaller and smaller as he spoke. He couldn't help but sob, his entire body trembling.
Jiangnan frowned. Damon believed his current self was the main personality, didn't he?
This was truly a terminal case.
Jiangnan's eyes widened as he roared:
(Ő口Ő๑) "Bullshit!"
The sudden shout startled Damon, and he looked up at Jiangnan in surprise.
(◔﹏◔ิメ) "I... I did not!"
Jiangnan sneered: "You're just running away! What the hell do you mean by 'afraid of going out and hurting more people'?"
"Confining yourself, isolating yourself from the outside world, bearing suffering, refusing to face reality—isn't this running away?"
"You've made no compensation for the innocent lives that died by your hands. You're just indulging in self-pity!"
"It moves no one but yourself! It redeems no one, not even you!"
Damon grew anxious: "I'm not! I'm not running away! I'm just afraid of hurting people outside, so I—"
Jiangnan narrowed his eyes: "Don't make excuses! You can't even face your true self, and you still say you're not running away?"
"Unable to accept the fact that you've slaughtered innocents and committed grave sins? Unwilling to face reality, disgusted by what you've done—that's why the kind personality was born!"
"But what have you done? Locking yourself in prison—is that how you atone? Apologize? Those people are dead! You destroyed their lives!"
"When you've done wrong, you've done wrong! And now you're making mistake after mistake! What you're doing now is the real irresponsibility toward those innocent people and toward yourself!"
Damon was completely frantic now, bloodshot eyes blazing.
"No! That's not true! Where did I go wrong? I lock myself in prison so I won't hurt more people—is that wrong?"
"Did I want to kill those people? No! But I killed them! What could I do?"
"I don't want to kill anyone else! Is that wrong? I want to make amends! But they're all dead! I killed them! How can I make amends? Time can't turn back!"
"If time could go back, I would rather kill myself before all this happened!"
Jiangnan said calmly: "If you truly had the determination to make amends, you wouldn't choose to lock yourself in prison for the rest of your life."
"Those people died in vain. You didn't even give their friends and family a chance to seek revenge. Isn't that cruel?"
"Did you truly respect the lives you took?"
Damon punched the floor hard, creating a large dent.
Crimson baleful stars appeared on his body, his expression growing more ferocious. Two different tones of roaring even came from his mouth!
"Stop talking! Don't say another word! You haven't experienced it yourself—what right do you have to say I don't respect life?"
"Did I want to kill them?"
A cruel smile spread across Jiangnan's face. His eyes were as scarlet as blooming blood moons!
Boundless killing intent erupted, wild and fierce, crashing heavily against Damon!
Even the temperature in the cell dropped sharply.
Chong Feiyu shuddered violently and looked at Jiangnan in surprise.
(*ﾟﾛﾟ) "Oh ho~ Jiangnan is no saint either, huh?"
Wang Youzhi chuckled darkly: "You think Jiangnan got to where he is today by being kind?"
"The blood on his hands is far from clean. When he needs to be ruthless, his hand never wavers."
Destroying over forty thousand life planets—that kind of ruthless hand wasn't something just anyone could wield.
Even Damon was stunned, looking at Jiangnan in shock. The... the embryonic form of killing intent? Although very crude, what the hell was this terrifying magnitude? Hiss~
How many lives had he ended? And how did Jiangnan learn this?
Jiangnan's expression turned savage: "How do you know I haven't experienced it? Have you killed more than me? I once destroyed over forty thousand life planets!"
"Even though I didn't kill them with my own hands, the order was mine! Hundreds of trillions of lives ended because of me—people I never even met. But they died because of me!"
"Would you say what I did was wrong? Or right?"
Damon's mouth fell open, utterly shocked. Over... over forty thousand?
Compared to Jiangnan, the lives he had taken didn't even amount to a fraction. This... this...
And this was a question Damon couldn't answer.
In truth, for humanity, Jiangnan had done the right thing. He was an undeniable hero, an Era Lord!
But for the countless races of the Starry Sky Races, Jiangnan was a devil, a calamity, a demon king who had slaughtered countless lives. He had done terribly wrong!
Jiangnan wasn't a god either. Having done such things, his hands could hardly be considered clean. How could he have no psychological burden?
Jiangnan murmured: "I too once hated this selfish version of myself. If I hadn't made that decision, those innocent people wouldn't have died! Families of several, living happily..."
"But that wasn't my happiness. If I hadn't done it, humanity would have become a Slave race, falling into the abyss forever! So for myself, for humanity, I ended their lives!"
"Ruthless enough to even doubt if this was the real me! I too felt guilt, sadness, and couldn't let go for a long time."
Jiangnan looked down at his own hands and was silent for a long time.
"But this is the law of the world! This is the cruel Starry Sky world! Sometimes we have to face choices. If we don't end others' lives, we can't survive ourselves!"
"Humans need to eat to survive, so we slaughter cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens, ending their lives. Cattle, sheep, and pigs need to eat grass and insects to survive, likewise ending their lives..."
"Humanity needed to enter the Star Domain Sequence. If we didn't, we'd become a Slave race, so we had to end those people's lives..."
"It's just that the needs are different, and the lives that need to be ended are different. The continuation of one life requires the death of countless lives!"
"We are all very selfish. Therefore... we are all still alive!"
Damon bit his lower lip hard, hanging his head, not knowing what he was thinking.
Jiangnan's expression turned solemn: "I'm not telling you to be selfish, not to feel guilt or self-blame. I'm telling you to respect life!"
"When you've done wrong, you've done wrong! Those innocent lives died because of me. Right or wrong, I did what I did!"
"I bear the consequences! Whoever comes to seek revenge or retribution, I face it openly!"
"I've also made my own compensation. Although Dimensional Star Navigation was a necessary move for humanity to stand in the starry sky, it's undeniable that it also benefited all races and provided convenience for them!"
"I'm giving back to this starry sky in my own way, compensating for the lives that died because of me. Although those people are dead and I can't change anything, I'm doing what I can!"
"A good man stands between heaven and earth—no shame to himself, no shame to others, no shame to heaven and earth! That's enough!"
Damon stared blankly at Jiangnan, seemingly trying to understand what he had said.
"Respect life, huh?"
Jiangnan nodded: "So, never choose to run away! Facing reality takes courage, but you must stand up and face it bravely!"
"Indeed, when people make mistakes, the brain's instinctive response is to shirk and run away. But that doesn't solve any real problems!"
"You killed so many innocent people. I know you feel guilty, self-blaming, unable to accept it! But does locking yourself in prison help? What have you changed?"
"You've changed nothing! Those who died by your hands all died in vain!"
Damon clutched his head in pain: "Then... then what should I do? Those people are already dead. No matter what I do, it's too late!"
Jiangnan smiled: "Go out! Go out and face it! Use this power of yours to save more people!"
"If you kill one bad person, then the lives that would have died at that bad person's hands in the future are saved by you!"
"You indeed can't compensate for the innocent people who already died by your hands. No matter what you do, it's too late. But everything you do from now on is a change made because of those who died!"
"Then their deaths are not meaningless! If you've done wrong, you've done wrong! If you can't make up for it, then give back elsewhere. Don't choose to run away and indulge in self-pity. That's not redemption—it's still making mistakes!"
At this moment, Damon was finally moved by Jiangnan's words. He looked at Jiangnan with hopeful eyes.
"Killing can be purely for killing, but it can also be for saving people, right? Can... can I do it? What if I lose control and mess up? Then I'd be making mistakes again!"
Jiangnan smiled: "Didn't you do well this time? You protected everyone and didn't hurt anyone else. This is a good start!"
Damon took a deep breath, as if making a major decision.
"I'll join! I want to go out with Brother Jiangnan! To face it! To make up for my mistakes!"
Jiangnan grinned and patted Damon's foot. "That's right!"
Wang Youzhi's mouth twitched, and he looked at Chong Feiyu:
=͟͟͞͞(꒪ᗜ꒪‧̣̥̇) "You weren't wrong about one thing. Jiangnan's mouth skills are indeed good!"
Chong Feiyu said proudly: (๑ớ̫ờ) "See? I told you! Strong little brother +1"